Electrical components, such as inductors, capacitors, computer chips, and the like, are increasingly in demand for a broad range of applications. Along with an increased overall need for these components has been a drive to make the components more miniaturized in size and footprint. Smaller electrical components carry through to smaller electrical devices, such as telephones and portable music player devices.
Electrical devices known as filters/diplexers are typically comprised of lumped LC networks or distributed-line resonators. The inductor components in typical LC type circuits are not magnetically coupled. Moreover, the size of such inductor components is usually large, particularly for low-frequency applications such as a Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) implementation in devices such as mobile phones.
Distributed-line topologies require the length of the respective “line” to be in the order of one-fourth (¼) of the wavelength at the operating frequency. As a result, line length requirements also limit a low frequency application for distributed-line topologies.
A need exists for an inductive component that realizes a compact design yet is usable in low-frequency applications. The design would benefit from compatibility with existing semiconductor technologies that allow for integration of electrical components in semiconductor devices.